


Then the Little One Said, Roll Over

by alba17



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cuddling & Snuggling, Gen, Graduation, Marijuana, Platonic Cuddling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-24
Updated: 2013-05-24
Packaged: 2017-12-12 21:16:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/816147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alba17/pseuds/alba17
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mordred and his best mates end up celebrating his graduation in his childhood bedroom. On his twin bed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Then the Little One Said, Roll Over

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a comment_fic prompt: _"I didn't think four grown drunk men could cuddle on a twin size bed, but we found a way"_ from Texts from Last Night. Thanks to jelazakazone for the beta and title suggestion.

“This is it,” Mordred said as he ushered his friends into his tiny childhood bedroom, decorated with Star Wars posters and a small model TARDIS. He sidled in front of the Thomas the Tank Engine lamp he’d never let his mum get rid of.

Arthur took a nose-dive into the bed and spread-eagled across it, feet dangling off the end. “Umph. Might just take a little snooze while we’re up here.”

After Mordred’s graduation ceremony, the boys had all gone out to celebrate at the pub near the university, then to a party at Mordred’s house. Mordred’s parents gave them dirty looks when they’d arrived half-sozzled from the pub. The house was filled with Mordred’s nearest and dearest, from tow-headed toddlers to grandparents eager to explain the details of their latest surgery, and a pack of drunken mates didn’t make the best impression. But Mordred didn’t care. Today was his day and he wanted to spend it having fun with his best mates.

Gwaine kicked Arthur's leg. “Don’t bail on us now, mate. The party’s just begun. Merlin brought some weed, yeah?” he said, turning to Merlin.

Mordred yelped. “What? Mum’ll kill me. We can’t smoke while my whole family’s downstairs!”

“Sure we can. Just open the window. We’ll blow the smoke out. No one will know,” Percy said, his massive biceps flexing as he struggled with the stuck window for a moment before throwing it up to let in the warm, summer air.

Mordred rolled his eyes. He could feel his resolve softening. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, really, but it was weird to do it in his childhood bedroom.

They were all older than he was. He’d met them through Arthur’s sister Morgana, who’d mentored Mordred at a summer internship a couple of years ago. She’d forced Arthur to add Mordred to his summer football team, and that’s where he’d met the rest: Gwaine, Percy, and Merlin, who was more of a mascot than an actual player. Mordred had impressed them with his agile footie moves and they’d taken him on as a project, looking on him as sort of a younger brother, showing him the ropes of life.

As a group, they tended to take over a room like a whirlwind. They were big, athletic men, except for Merlin of course, who was more into yoga than football and, to the everyone else’s disgust, always eager to demonstrate his flexibility. Whenever they got together, they egged each other on and became loud and boisterous, endlessly bickering and teasing. Soon Mordred’s mum was sending them upstairs to Mordred’s bedroom just to get them out of there, and probably to save her china as well.

“Come on, it’s your graduation day. Just one joint won’t hurt," Merlin said to Mordred. "Take the edge off.” He pulled a plastic bag out of his pocket and threw Mordred a mischievous smile. “It’ll be fun. You can tell us boring tales of your childhood. I know you’ve got a sketchbook crammed with Star Wars fan art around here somewhere, don’t you? I can just tell.” He nudged an elbow into Mordred’s side. “Let's look, Gwaine.”

“No!” Mordred cried, alarmed. 

“Oh yeah,” Gwaine replied. “Princess Leia, right? Who’d you like her with, Mordred?” Gwaine leaned over to look in the bookshelves and started pulling out books. Merlin rifled through the desk. 

“Okay, okay, roll a joint, Merlin, just stop.” Mordred squatted in front of the bookshelves and shoved Gwaine aside. Gwaine fell over and laughed. “Bastard,” Mordred said, smiling. After a few moments of searching, he found the sketchbook - how did Merlin know? - and waved it in the air. “Yes, I have a sketchbook full of Star Wars fan art. Happy, now? It’s spaceships and robots, guys, not _Princess Leia_. God.”

Merlin sniggered and sat down on the edge of the bed next to Arthur. He grabbed a magazine, spread it on his thighs and began to carefully sprinkle weed on a cigarette paper.

“Is there porn? I want porn,” Gwaine demanded.

Arthur raised his head from the bed where he was still lying flat on his stomach. “Porn! Porn!” he yelled before his head flopped back down.

“Let’s see it,” Percy said, grabbing at the sketchbook. 

“No way, budge over,” Mordred said, as he plonked down on the bed next to Merlin, who was still the midst of rolling the joint, and half-sitting on Arthur’s calf.

“Ow!” exclaimed Arthur. “You’re heavier than you look, mate.” 

“Well, move.”

Arthur rolled over and made himself more compact. “If you didn’t have such a stupidly small bed, it wouldn’t be a problem. What is this, made for dolls?”

Mordred sighed, scooting over into the space Arthur had vacated. “It’s a regular twin size bed, all right? It’s what kids normally have, you plonker. I suppose you always had a great big king-size bed in that mansion of yours.” 

Arthur mumbled something defensive and curled up on his side behind the others.

“Oy, make room for me,” Gwaine said, scooting his arse into Arthur’s face as he sat down on Mordred’s other side. 

“Jesus, get out of my face, Gwaine,” Arthur said, jerking his head back, and eliciting some arse twitching from Gwaine. 

“You love it,” Gwaine replied. “I know you just want to get your tongue right down in there.”

“Ew,” the other boys chorused.

“You don’t know what you’re missing,” Gwaine sing-songed, grinding his hips back into Arthur. 

Arthur prodded him forward. “Quit it, you perv.”

Gwaine pushed at Arthur's head, laughing. “Some day, Pendragon, I’m going to teach you some things.”

“Oh god,” Mordred muttered, rolling his eyes at Merlin. “I don’t even want to know.”

Percy loomed over the bed with his hands on his hips. “Where am I going to sit?”

They all looked up at him with raised eyebrows.

“Seriously?” Merlin said, the completed joint held between his fingers.

“No room for you on here, big guy,” Arthur added.

Percy’s eyes lit up. “We’ll see about that.” He dove onto the bed.

“You’ll break it!” Mordred yelled. He cringed as Percy landed in a pile of arms and legs. The bed creaked but remained intact, to Mordred’s relief. Gwaine growled and attacked Percy’s underarms where he was infamously ticklish and the rest soon joined in.

“No! No!” Percy cried, laughing and bringing his arms close to his body in a futile attempt to protect himself from the onslaught. But they all knew Percy’s weak spots, and all Percy could do was give up and laugh uncontrollably. They all did for a few minutes, in a sweaty, drunken tangle, until Merlin yelled, “The joint! Watch out for the joint!” He held it aloft, a golden prize, and that got their attention.

“Stop!” Gwaine called. “Protect the joint!”

“Protect the joint!” Arthur repeated. “Light it up, Merlin.”

Mordred couldn’t quite figure out how they all fit on his twin bed, but they did, with Percy leaning back against Arthur’s midsection, Gwaine mainly on the pillow, and Mordred and Merlin perching on the edge. It was kind of nice, actually, to have all his best mates pretzeled together in his old bedroom. It felt like a farewell to childhood, a rite of passage; doing grown-up things with his grown-up friends, who could no longer fit on his boyhood bed.

Before he could get too sentimental, he said, “Yeah, Merlin, light her up.”

Merlin waggled his eyebrows and lit the joint, taking a long puff and then passing it to Mordred. “The man of the day gets the first toke.”

Mordred sucked in the heavy smoke. “You guys are the best.”

Before long, the room was aromatic despite their best efforts to swat the smoke out the window and they grew quiet, the atmosphere mellowing considerably. Gwaine pillowed Arthur’s head under his arm, Percy scooted way down so his head rested on Arthur’s stomach, Mordred nestled somewhere between the three of them, and Merlin lay his head on Arthur’s calves with Mordred’s legs under his. There was some desultory discussion of the football season and the upcoming summer league, which Mordred was excited about, before they fell silent. Arms and legs entangled, Gwaine’s head leaned in toward Arthur’s and Arthur’s hand reached up to play with his hair. Percy’s arm ended up around Mordred’s shoulders, his big hand splayed across Mordred’s chest, radiating warmth and security. Mordred gave Merlin a foot massage, eliciting groans from Merlin and frisky taunts from Gwaine.

Mordred realised he was smiling. He wanted to remember this moment forever, capture it in time, because he’d never felt happier. He was surrounded by his friends like a warm bath and he never wanted to leave. With friends like these, it wasn’t so bad to grow up.

“Isn’t it about time to see that Star Wars art, Mordred? You must have at least one drawing of Princess Leia. Do one with her pegging Luke, why don’t you?” Gwaine broke the silence. 

Mordred groaned. On second thought...


End file.
